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It happens from time to time that your boss may ask you to do something that you know in your gut is wrong. You probably feel compelled to do it to avoid a negative reaction from your boss, one that might lead to retaliatory behaviors. You have that queasy feeling and that’s your cue to resist.

How can you overcome your fear? One suggestion is to find an outlet to express your concerns and document your feelings along the way. Keeping a journal is a good idea because it becomes proof of your intentions, reservations, and any communications with your boss on the contentious matter. You never know if and when such a conflict blows up and you want to be prepared to defend your actions.

Some of the more common situations when a boss might expect you to do something unethical is to mislead a customer in order to make the sale. How many times have we walked into a car dealership, been told one thing by the salesperson, and then something changes when we go to close the deal?

Another example is when a boss demands that you cut corners to complete the manufacturing of a product even though it hasn’t been 100 percent inspected before being shipped to the customer. Perhaps your boss takes this shortcut because past history indicates a very low rate of defective product. Here, you want to avoid going along at all costs because it’s your reputation on the line. Guess what will happen if the customer receives a defective part of product? Your boss will blame you for sloppy work.

The most serious kind of situation is when a boss asks you to commit/go along with financial fraud, and suggests that if you don’t there will be consequences. Now, the boss won’t come straight out and use the “r” word – retaliation – because that can get the boss and the company in trouble under a variety of laws, such as the False Federal Claims Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Once again, it’s your reputation on the line and you risk being blamed for the falsehood if you stay silent.

One thing to avoid at all costs is the age-old directive of: “See no Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.” You can’t make believe it never happened and expect to ever reach closure or that your boss won’t ask you to go along again and again.

Being an ethical person in the workplace seems to be harder all the time because of pressures to perform and competition from other companies. To me the underlying cause is a lack of morals to begin with. All too many people approach ethics from a relativistic perspective. That is, what is right or wrong in each situation is relevant to the facts unique to that situation. So, let’s say it’s year-end and your boss asks you to ship the product before its completely inspected, the argument the boss might make is by prematurely shipping it the company will earn higher revenues at year-end, increase profits for the year, and bump up bonuses for employees. You don’t want to be the one who kills it for your fellow employees and yourself. However, the boss might not push as hard if it is the beginning of the year where profits are unknown and pressures for high bonuses not active as yet.

My advice in these situations is always to stand your ground and not go along with the initial request made by your boss. Otherwise, you might make a decision that you will regret later because once that first step is taken, you begin the slide down the proverbial ethical slippery slope where it’s difficult to reverse course and reclaim the moral high ground.

09/26/2017

A strong work ethics builds confidence that employees will do what it takes to complete assigned tasks in a timely manner. It illustrates a dedication to one’s employer and its goals, a commitment to organizational values, and a determination to get things done and get it done rightly. A strong work ethic creates an environment of dependability and accountability.

How can an organization foster a strong work ethic? Integrity is the key. Top management must walk the talk of ethics. They must create a culture that supports ethical behavior and responds to improper behavior through sanctions that are consistently applied. The message must be sent that those who violate organization norms will be held accountable. In the end, ethical leaders have a moral compass that faces due North.

Here are a few things you can do to build a strong work ethic in your employees.

Create a supportive environment. Employees want to know that their boss will support them as long as they play by the rules and do whatever it takes to get the job done in an efficient and effective manner.

Provide feedback in a helpful manner. Nobody wants to be torn apart in a performance evaluation. Employees expect to have a critical evaluation but one that makes constructive suggestions to improve performance.

Ask for their advice. Employees know better than anyone else how to fix problems and can help to improve communication between managers and employees; this can lead to increased productivity.

Create opportunities for moving up the ladder. Few employees want to stay at the same position for a long time especially if their performance justifies a promotion. Passing over employees without good reason may lead to a lack of trust and negatively affect work ethics.

Recognize the importance of a work-life balance. Young adults and millennials seek a work-life balance. Work-life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation).

Enable employees to capitalize on their knowledge of social media. Employees, today, know more about how an organization can capitalize on its social media presence to build customer relationships and enhance its image than ever before. Use that knowledge to your advantage.

Treat employees with kindness and compassion. Employees are human beings and should be treated as such. From time to time they may need a day off for personal reasons or time away from the job. A trusting relationship with emotional support builds loyalty and enhances the work ethic.

A strong work ethic supports the employer-employee relationship and also builds confidence that an employee who works hard will be rewarded accordingly. Proper recognition for one’s efforts builds on the work ethic and employees feel valued by their employer. Building loyalty is a process that creates dividends for an organization and can create an ethical organization culture.

My advice is for an employer/manager to think back when they were first starting out and what they expected in their first job. What made them want to stay with that employer and build a lasting relationship? The odds are most of the same values exist today albeit in a slightly different form because of the work-life balance and the omnipresence of social media.

Blog posted on September 26 2017 by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage. Dr. Mintz is Professor Emeritus, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Check out his Ethics Sage blog. I've also just began a Higher Ed Ethics Watch blog. Check out my website,where you can sign up for my Newsletter. Like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.

09/15/2017

This blog was first posted in February 2016, but takes on a new meaning given the increasing use of social media in the workplace and need for companies to set limits for employee use. The blog has been updated to reference best practices for social media use in the workplace.

How are we to judge whether a company’s use of social media in monitoring employee behavior is ethical or not? With all the benefits that social media is bringing to the corporate world, a company faces numerous risks in its use, from misuse of company resources, to conflicts of interest and disparagement of others. Social media is a challenging topic because it crosses over so many ethics and compliance issues.

When not diligently managed, social media opens the door to numerous risks – breach of confidentiality, conflicts of interest, misuse of company resources, to name a few of the more obvious ones. Since social media can touch so many aspects of a company’s operations, its leadership needs to address it in context to its overall business operations. Unlike some risk areas, it cannot be successfully addressed largely as a stand-alone matter.

A company without an initiative to effectively identify, assess and manage its approach to social media and its various tools not only loses out on its many opportunities they offer but faces numerous risks to and improper business practices and activities that may damage the business. A program to harness these risks does not need to be onerous or intrusive, but it does need to be proportional to the company’s exposure. Further, a company should expect the social media arena to continue to change both in technologies, their uses, business providers and ways social media impacts the business landscape.

Corporate Compliance Insights out that a variety of possible forms of social media exist, which are worth monitoring and setting ethical standards.

Communication, such as blogs, micro-blogs, social networking and events.

Entertainment, for example, media platforms, virtual worlds and game sharing.

Companies need to understand the application of legal and regulatory standards to social media. Currently, a number of U.S. laws and regulations are being applied to the media’s applications. Regulation FD responds to the communication of company financial or other key operational information outside of the company. Employee privacy is covered by HIPAA. Intellectual property laws address how employees may communicate a company’s IP across social media. FINRA, the securities self-regulatory organization, recently adopted a regulatory notice on use of blogs and social networking sites. But companies should expect the legal and regulatory environment to continue to broaden around social media as its impact on the business world becomes better understood.

"Each company needs to consider three ways in which social media can impact it. First, it needs to address how employees use social media for their personal, non-company use. Second, it should consider how it and its employees use social media for the company’s business objectives. Another issue of social media involves where a company needs to set rights and responsibilities for the non-employees it invites to engage in its social media activities."

Balancing the legitimate interests of employers and employees and job applicants, as well as drawing the proper ethical boundary between moral and immoral conduct regarding social media use is a very difficult undertaking. Employers have legitimate business interests to manage their companies; and employees have legitimate interests to have private off-duty activities. For the employer, hiring people and keeping qualified employees who obey the employer’s legitimate social media policies certainly can be said to advance the self-interest of the employer, which would make the practice moral pursuant to Ethical Egoism. Not hiring people or discharging employees who violate proper company policies and harm the company surely can be construed as a societal norm, which would make the practice moral pursuant to Ethical Relativism.

Furthermore, an argument can be made that legitimate and fair employer social media policies and practices achieve more good consequences than bad, which would make social media-based job determinations moral pursuant to Utilitarianism. Finally, for Kantian ethics, there quite rightly are concerns that an employer’s intruding into an employee’s or applicant’s personal life, as reflected on social media, could impinge on the employee’s freedom, privacy, and dignity and thus be immoral.

A useful resource is a document by Tim Fox, the Compliance Evangelist that provides best practices for social media use in the workplace. Briefly, Fox recommends the following.

Let Your Employees Know What You Stand For.

Celebrate Their Efforts.

Give Your Employees a Tool Kit for Compliance.

In my ethics training programs, I have found that most companies have not established adequate ethical standards for social media use, and company policies have not quite caught up with the changing technology and more prevalent use of social media by employees. Encouraging employee use of social media in the workplace can be a good recruiting tool as so many devote a substantial amount of their daily time to various forms of the activity.

Blog posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on September 15, 2017. Dr. Mintz is Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He also blogs at: www.ethicssage.com. Visit his website for more information about his activities and availability for speaking engagements, ethics training, litigation consulting and expert witness work. "Like" his Facebook page. Follow him on Twitter.

09/12/2017

You know how it starts. You tell a lie and then feel pressured to continue down that road to defend your statement or decision even though you know in your gut the initial decision was wrong. Maybe you shade the truth to prevent an improper action from becoming public knowledge. Maybe you cover it up. After all, you don’t want others to find out.

What’s happened here is you took the wrong turn and have begun the slide down the proverbial “ethical slippery slope.” The initial decision leads to another and then another, all to prevent others from discovering the truth about your decision. In fact, you are embarrassed about it but don’t know to extricate yourself from the situation.

So, what causes a person to take the first step down the ethical slippery slope? The primary reason is not that the decision-maker is a bad person rather that pressures in the workplace can create a workplace environment that leads an otherwise good person to commit a wrongful action or stay silent when others do the same thing.

I have found in my own research and in conducting workshops that an underlying cause for taking the first step down the ethical slippery slope is not knowing what it means to be a truthful person. I think of it in two ways.

Honesty. Expressing the truth (facts) as best we know it and not conveying it in a way likely to mislead or deceive. Honesty in conduct is playing by the rules, without stealing, cheating, fraud and other trickery. The trait of honesty has been valued for centuries, and Shakespeare once wrote, “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.”

Full Disclosure. To be honest in your words and actions. To be a truthful person means more than just being honest and not lying. Truthfulness has two components: a lie by commission where you knowingly commit a falsehood, and a lie by omission where you knowingly omit some item of information that another party has a right to know. We can look at full disclosure as an integral part of transparency.

There are many well-known examples of the ethical slippery slope from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme to Lance Armstrong’s lying about taking performance enhancing drugs. Instances of the ethical slippery slope in organizations occur from time to time as well.

Imagine that one of your workers reports alleged sexual harassment. As the Director of Human Resources, it is your job to decide what to do. You don’t want to tarnish the image of your organization so you dismiss the employee’s concerns. Later, another incident occurs and the employee comes to you again. At this point, many in the organization know of the allegations and the employee has been treated differently, including being harassed and assigned work projects beneath their capability.

The employee decides to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in your state. The agency begins an investigation and questions you about the allegations. Since you did not record or otherwise document the facts of the first meeting with the employee, you answer by saying “there was a complaint.” OSHA found there were two complaints because the employee produced an email sent to you to request the first meeting. You responded by providing the place and time to meet. The employee also produces a second email with the subject header “Following-up on My Complaint.” Now you’ve gone and done it by being untruthful. What will you do next?

I have found that the underlying cause of instances like this one is the lack of an ethical organization culture. If workers perceive that managers cover-up bad decisions, they learn it is acceptable for them to do so as well. A company philosophy of “This is the way things are done around here” pollutes the environment.

In discussing how to establish an ethical environment in an organization, Darnell Lattal, CEO and president of Aubrey Daniels International, behavioral science expert, and author of Ethics at Work, says: “Ethical companies use distinct practices to create an environment in which their employees choose to act ethically, including open dialogue, celebrations, and visible recognition of and rewards for appropriate behavior.”

Listen to your instincts: Don't disregard that disquieting feeling when something doesn't feel right or your being asked to do something that makes you uncomfortable.

Look for backup: Approach others in the organization that you believe have a good 'moral compass' whose values will stand strong in the face of bad behavior.

Collect Information: Gather information to support your own behavior and make it clear that even though an action may be acceptable in the organization you will not act in the same way.

It's never too late to pull back:While it is challenging to reverse course on the ethical slippery slope, one can change behavior once the moral issues have been identified and risks of certain behaviors are considered.

It’s been said that ethics is easier said than done. Ethics is all about what we do when no one is watching. The HR Director figured no one would know about the first complaint.

My advice is to establish an ethical tone at the very top that permeates the organization supported by clear policies and consequences for not adhering to the ethics code. It starts with the board of directors or board of trustees and filters down to the CEO and other top company officials. There also needs to be ethics training so all in the organization know how the ethics code applies to them: What are the organization’s expectations? How should they report wrongdoing? How does adherence to the code and company policies influence performance evaluation?

Blog posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on September 12, 2017. Steve is Professor Emeritus from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. To learn more about Steve, visit his website.

Follow Steve on Twitter. Like his Facebook page. Communicate with Steve at: steve@ethicssage.com.

09/06/2017

From time to time I post a guest blog to inform my readers of important developments in the workplace. Today’s blog is an important one because the workplace environment can be a pleasing place or one that is unsatisfying depending on the way bosses treat their employees. Workers might feel valued or worthless depending on the tone set by the boss. Dr. Michelle Joy and Dr. Jody Foster share their views by examining the behavior of female bosses.

A bad boss can make the workplace miserable. And sometimes this person is a woman. Given how much time people spend in this office, life itself can become wretched. You start to feel angry, humiliated, anxious, and depressed. You tell your coworkers just how bad this supervisor is, how she treats you, how she makes you feel. She really is a “jerk,” you claim, “a b**ch” you all agree. You consider doing something about it but take no steps. You hope that she stops acting this way and that everything can just get better on its own.

But of course she doesn’t stop. She keeps yelling at you, keeping you late, making you redo reports. She criticizes your work. She criticizes you. You start to realize change is unlikely. You try to do everything you can do to avoid a blowout, but nothing works. Your job becomes a prison where each day is spent thinking about how much you hate your boss – feeling terrible and without any results. Dreading each interaction…

There are two steps on the path forward. Both may seem difficult but are surprisingly simple:

1. Acknowledge what you might be bringing to the table and why your boss’ behavior bothers you so much. Because even if you have found solace in group gossip about your manager, chances are there are some reasons why you are so personally frustrated by this person. Does she remind you of someone else in life? Can you absolutely not tolerate criticism? What is it about you that makes her seem so bad? As intolerable as she seems, and as little as you want to do this, you may be surprised at what answers arise.

2. Empathize. The complementary approach – one that can be incredibly hard to come to terms with – is to empathize with your boss. Why on earth would we suggest finding an empathic spot for this person when it’s quite literally the last thing you want to do? Because if you must find a way to get along, you’ll need to take the long view and try to understand why she acts in this particular way. In allowing yourself to empathize with your boss, you also give space for some of the negativity to fade away. In understanding her and yourself, a desire to learn and to grow can start to replace the bottled-up disdain spilling into every part of your day.

We’ve consulted with a number of employees over the years who have had significant problems working for female bosses. Most were women, though some were also men. In all situations, we asked the workers to ask why they seemed to be so rattled by women in positions of authority. Why do they feel so minimized and humiliated when, for example, they were scolded or criticized? These are all issues that an employee brings to the table and must evaluate. Perhaps the same boss wouldn’t bother another colleague quite as much. We try to help people understand that it’s their responsibilities to look inward for answers to these questions.

At the same time, consulting employees often find themselves wondering whether the women who achieve high rank are in some way meaner or more difficult. And why they would act this way toward them when, as fellow women, they should presumably want to support one another. So we ask them to empathize and think about what be driving her boss to be so dismissive of her feelings. What does she know about her? What is the office like for her boss? What was her path to promotion? What in this story might have caused her to behave so distastefully? Most importantly, we try to frame what internal struggles the boss might be dealing with that cause her behavior.

Perhaps a micromanaging boss is so incredibly afraid of losing control that she needs to discipline everyone around her to feel more secure. Maybe her whole life has spent trying to be “perfect” in order to please others and she takes these insecurities out on those around her. Perhaps a seemingly arrogant boss only flies off the handle when she herself feels exposed or humiliated. She is afraid the world might discover that her big job is just a mask covering her cripplingly low self-esteem, and she constantly fears discovery of what she feels is her fraudulent, inadequate self.

In trying to understand the boss’s underlying anxiety, an employee can interact in ways that help keep the supervisor’s fear at bay:

Find little ways to show the boss she’s in control if she needs to be.

If the boss has fragile self-esteem, show her value by acknowledging her positives when opportunities arise.

If a disorganized boss can’t finish anything and slows everyone else down, learn to interact with her in bite-sized tasks and complete them one at a time.

The hardest part is acknowledging our own roles – and capabilities – in making the workplace more comfortable. In accepting the task of learning about ourselves and our bosses, we can do just that. People want to tell you about themselves and will do so all the time; they want to be heard. Just look and listen with the intent to understand. It works every time.

Dr. Michelle Joy and Dr. Jody Foster are the authors of The Schmuck in My Office: How to Deal Effectively with Difficult People at Work. For more information, please visit, www.schmuckinmyoffice.com.

08/02/2017

From time to time I publish a guest post and believe this one will be of interest to young adults and Millennials entering the workforce, especially in the technology field. The piece was provided by Robert Lovell of PayScale.

PayScale, the online compensation and benefits analysts, recently carried out a study into levels of reported job satisfaction for employees at 17 of the world’s leading tech companies.

As part of the research project, feedback to survey questions gathered from nearly 35,000 staff – representing such global giants as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Tesla, Hewlett Packard and IBM – was compiled into a series of infographics. The resulting charted data is shown below.

Overall, it appears to show that tech employees are typically relatively satisfied (and relatively well paid) at both early and mid-career stages. However, there also seems to be a fairly linear decline in reported levels of overall job satisfaction at those companies whose workforces tend to be older and more experienced on average.

The question is, does this constitute further evidence of the alleged youth bias that has dogged the tech industry in recent years? As ever with these sorts of studies, apparent emerging trends can be interpreted in numerous ways: it could equally be suggested, for example, that the results merely reflect the inherent optimism of recent recruits to any industry, as compared with their more seasoned colleagues.

Either way, with today’s graduates increasingly jostling to take up positions with these sorts of firms worldwide, it’s certainly an issue worthy of further discussion. For more information on exactly how the data was gathered and compiled – and, of course, what it might all mean – you can view the full details of Payscale’s sampling process in the published methodology here.

06/27/2017

The ethical culture of an organization says a lot about what a company values. Ethics codes are one way to express the prevailing values and outlines guideposts to get to that goal. Unfortunately, many companies pay lip-service to such documents. They do not guide actions or spell out how violators will be penalized. Perhaps this explains why time and again we witness unethical behavior at the corporate level, whether it as at Wells Fargo’s opening fictitious customer accounts, or Volkswagen instilling defeat device to cheat on emission output or Takata, the maker of air bags for Toyota that just filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. These companies like many others seem to have lost their moral compass. Integrity is no longer valued as the prime ethical value from which others are derived.

I recently read an interesting book by Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge (Organizational Behavior). They offer a useful list of what management can do to create a more ethical organizational culture. They suggest a combination of the following practices:

Be a role model and be visible.Your employees look to the behavior of top management as a model of what’s acceptable behavior in the workplace. When senior management is observed (by subordinates) to take the ethical high road, it sends a positive message for all employees.

Communicate ethical expectations.Ethical ambiguities can be reduced by creating and disseminating an organizational code of ethics. It should state the organization’s primary values and the ethical rules that employees are expected to follow. Remember, however, that a code of ethics is worthless if top management fails to model ethical behaviors.

Offer ethics training.Set up seminars, workshops, and similar ethical training programs. Use these training sessions to reinforce the organization’s standards of conduct, to clarify what practices are and are not permissible, and to address possible ethical dilemmas.

Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones.Performance appraisals of managers should include a point-by-point evaluation of how his or her decisions measure up against the organization’s code of ethics. Appraisals must include the means taken to achieve goals as well as the ends themselves. People who act ethically should be visibly rewarded for their behavior. Just as importantly, unethical acts should be punished.

Provide protective mechanisms.The organization needs to provide formal mechanisms so that employees can discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical behavior without fear of reprimand. This might include creation of ethical counselors, ombudsmen, or ethical officers.

An ethical workplace culture is one that gives priority to employee rights, fair procedures, equity in pay and promotion, promotion of tolerance, compassion, loyalty and honesty in the treatment of customers and employees, and the ethical pursuit of profit. When employees respect the rules of conduct and feel fairly treated by management, the employees begin to trust managers and internalize the company’s values as their own. Once that happens, ethics becomes embedded in the workplace culture. If stockholders and potential investors trust management and believe they are committed to ethics, they are more likely to invest. This is why we have mutual funds comprising socially responsible corporations.

It is true that good ethics is good business. Perhaps not in the short-term but definitely in the ling-term when one’s ethical transgressions tend to catch up with a person or organization.

05/31/2017

Pregnant women and new mothers are suffering increasing levels of unfair treatment at work, including cuts in hours, being put on zero-hours contracts or even forced out of their job, a report has revealed.

Citizens Advice warned of a growing problem of new and expectant mothers facing discrimination. The charity said there had been a 25% increase in people seeking workplace advice on pregnancy and maternity issues in the past year, with more than 22,000 visits to its website.

Evidence from Citizens Advice included pregnant women and new mothers having their working hours cut, being put on to zero-hours contracts, being pressured to return to work early from maternity leave and, in some cases, forced out of their jobs.

I recently was contacted by Sherman Law PLLC and asked to post a guest blog on this topic. I am delighted to do so because the information can help pregnant women who feel discriminated against.

In 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, protecting women from being fired or discriminated against due to pregnancy. Yet in 2016, the EEOC received almost 3,500 pregnancy discrimination charges. There were more cases of pregnancy discrimination filed in 2016 than in 1992. And those are just the cases that were filed, not taking into account the thousands of women who never moved forward with complaints. Startling, to say the least.

Pregnancy discrimination can take many different forms. In some cases, mothers return to work after their maternity leave ends only to find out they have been demoted or placed in a new position. In other cases, a woman is fired simply for announcing her pregnancy. That type of case seems almost too blatant. But shockingly enough, it happens. And then there are countless other situations of pregnancy discrimination that occur every day in U.S. companies.

What the Law Says

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 was enacted to ensure that pregnant employees or “women affected by childbirth” are treated the same as childless workers. More recently the EEOC updated its expectations and guidelines to make clear that pregnant workers with a medical condition such as gestational diabetes, should be granted reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disability Act.

Far too often, employers refuse to grant pregnant workers accommodations based on medical needs. A problem this recent update by the EEOC hopes to curb.

The “Motherhood Penalty”

Studies have shown that mothers start at a lower pay than their coworkers, make less money over time, and they receive raises and promotions less often than their colleagues—that is, when they’re kept around.” Employers and co-workers also commonly believe, incorrectly, that mothers don’t work as hard and aren’t as capable as their male or single women colleagues.

“The “motherhood penalty” is alive and well. When sociologist Shelley Correll and her colleagues sent out more than 1,200 fake résumés to employers in a large Northeastern city, mothers were significantly less likely than either childless women or fathers with identical qualifications to get interviews,” said the Washington Post.

A University of New Mexico study, reported by NPR, found that moms earn 14% less than childless women. Women also fall short, across every sector, when it comes to occupying leadership positions. The bias towards working mothers and women is evident, yet the perceptions are unfounded. In fact, many studies have shown quite the opposite. A Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study concluded that mothers were actually more productive in their jobs than childless women.

In the News

It’s companies of all sizes and across every industry that are being accused of pregnancy discrimination. Since 2014, according to the EEOC, pregnancy discrimination resolutions have increased 17%. In the summer of 2015, AutoZone was ordered to pay an unprecedented $185 million in punitive damages to a former employee who claimed that after she became pregnant she was demoted, relocated and her wages cut. When she returned and asked for her job back her supervisor refused to promote her. Ultimately, she was fired.

These types of situations are all too common. Unfortunately, many women don’t want to go through with a formal complaint or workplace lawsuit, which only perpetuates the situation and allows the mistreatment of pregnant women to continue and misperceptions of working mothers to prevail.

Why Many Women Don’t File Complaints

Unfortunately, many women don’t file complaints or stand up for their rights when faced with pregnancy discrimination. The reasons are many but the top 4 most common reasons women site are:

Feeling guilty

Believing that filing a law suit against their employer will ruin their career

An ignorance on the law

Don’t think they have enough evidence

While pregnancy discrimination filings are going up each year, the reasons listed above stop a large majority of women from moving forward with a complaint. For these women, the alternative is usually to either find a new job or accept an uncomfortable or hostile working environment.

If you believe you are being discriminated against based on pregnancy or because you are a mother, it is important that you stand up for your rights. Every time a woman speaks up, she makes it easier for other working mothers. And with pregnancy discrimination on the rise there has never been a more crucial time for women to stand up for their rights and fight back against discriminatory practices.

Sherman Law, PLLC, located in Portsmouth, NH, represents companies and employees in all types of employment-related matters, including claims involving sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and discrimination. The original article appeared in NH Labor News.

05/19/2017

I have previously blogged about millennials and their workplace needs. This blog updates an earlier one and discussed information provided by Loyalty Works.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has been around a long time. It describes the basic needs of individuals to be happy and fulfilled in life. Loyalty Works describes the expectations of millennials from their work experience.

Millennials are like no generation before them. They look to meet their own needs first before contributing to meeting those of an employer. Indeed, they are not likely to stay with a job unless their basic needs are met and self-actualization is nourished.

We assume the basic needs are met in most job experiences. Maslow’s hierarchy holds that physiological needs are the foundation for all other needs. This means the need for food, water, and shelter are basic to sustain life. Safety and security come next. The employment experience must provide a sufficient income and cover basic health needs for employees to achieve higher levels of satisfaction.

It is important to point out, unlike previous generations, the pursuit of wealth is not the driving force in the workplace. Instead, Millennials look for fulfilling experiences, opportunities for growth and development, satisfying work-team engagement, and a social networking environment that enhances the work experience.

Millennials spend more time at work than previous generations, in part because of the social aspect of jobs and the workplace. Working closely in teams draws Millennials closer together. Social ties lead to emotional experiences and the opportunity to build relationships. They inform personal experiences and contribute to a satisfying work experience.

Millennials are more likely to meet their mate at work than previous generations, and they are open to workplace dating experiences. Employers need to support Millennials’ need for a sense of connection from work. This is essential to climbing the ladder to the next level of needs.

Millennials do not see the potential red flags of having personal relationships in the workplace. They do not stop and think that one participant or another may evaluate job performance of the other down the road. What happens if the dating relationship goes south? Well, Millennials do not think that far in advance because they live in the here and now.

The top two levels of the ladder are the trickiest. Unless the three basic needs are met first, Millennials are not likely to achieve self-esteem from the job. They need to be respected by their peers, gain confidence on the job, and achieve success as they know it. Employers should target meeting these needs to have satisfied employees. If they are not met, then Millennials may leave their job and go on to another employer that might satisfy these higher-level needs.

Unlike previous generations, Millennials do not feel a loyalty to their employer above all else. Their loyalty is to themselves and satisfying their own needs from their workplace experiences. They are more likely to become loyal to their employer if their own needs are met first.

Millennials are fueled by passion for whatever they do. They are driven at work by passion for social causes – i.e., sustainability. They believe in what they do and want to work with like-minded individuals.

They thirst for a sense of belonging from their work experiences. A fulfilling a work experience fosters self-esteem and creates a pathway to self-actualization.

Maslow’s Hierarchy should be ingrained in the work culture. Employers must realize that Millennials are a different breed than previous generations. They have grown up with the Internet providing their window to the world. They expect the workplace experience to be engaging and provide time for social networking.

Millennials place purpose ahead of profits. They value social entrepreneurship. They ask: What does the employer stand for? What is their purpose in meeting the needs of stakeholders? How can this contribute to my need for meaning and maximizing my inner potential? These are questions Millennials ask before determining whether self-actualization is a realistic expectation from the job.

Blog posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on May 19, 2017. Sign up for my Newsletter and take the Ethics IQ Test.

05/10/2017

Let’s face it. We’re all fed up with the airlines and our treatment on planes. We didn’t need three incidents to remind us about it. We are oftentimes shocked by the coldness of gate attendants and onboard staff. We’re repulsed by the excessive baggage fees and the delays, due in part to the checked baggage fees that promote more carry ones, more delays in taking off, and more late flights.

The incident on a United Express flight where a passenger, David Dao, was forcibly removed from a flight by officers of the Chicago Department of Aviation to make way for United pilots on another flight disgusted us all. What’s worse, the airline tried to shift the blame to another airline at first saying that it was a Republic Airlines flight. Of course, Republic is a partner airline with United so that excuse is lame. United CEO Oscar Munoz appeared to blame Dao calling him “disruptive and belligerent.” That didn’t go over well with the public after watching the horrific video.

United has already settled with Dao. The agreement is confidential. I figure it’s in the millions.

Incredibly, less than one month later, Delta Airlines forced a family off an overnight flight from Maui to California. A video shows crew agents telling the father they would put the parents in jail and place their children in foster care. This is unfathomable. The lack of common sense and common decency is inexplicable. Delta quickly offered compensation and an apology to Brian Schwartz and his family after he posted on the eight-minute video on You Tube.

These incidents remind me of a basic truth in ethics, which is ethics is about what you when no one is looking. I’m sure the security officials at the United incident and crew of Delta didn’t expect to be seen on You Tube and their irresponsible behavior unmasked. This makes me wonder about the training on these airlines. Clearly, they fail to see the public good aspect of their service as a high-priority ethical value. They simply act in their own interests.

The American Airlines incident last week is different because it deals with an Australian man who claims to have been “crushed” on a plane by large seat mates on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. The passenger alleges he had to contort his body within the cramped space caused by the intrusion of grossly obese passengers sitting next to him. He claims to have aggravated his existing condition of curvature of the spine. His case is a bit suspicious because he claimed he was crushed by two large passengers, yet he was in a window seat. And it took about one year to plead his case. It would appear he is trying to cash in on the public’s frustration about the United and Delta experiences.

I mention the American incident because the airline just said it will shrink the space between most rows from 31 inches to 30 inches on Boeing 737 jetliners. At least three rows will have only 29 inches, allowing American to better compete with discount airlines such as Spirit and Frontier. American is arguably the worst airline I’ve ever flown on. Many of its flights do not offer seat-back entertainment, presumably because most passengers bring on their own devices to stream music and videos. That’s a convenient excuse for poor customer service.

The one common denominator in these incidents is they are U.S.-owned airlines. You don’t find such reprehensible behavior on foreign airlines. Based on Skytrax Airline Awards for passenger satisfaction, you have to go to #25 to find a U.S.-owned carrier (Virgin America) then #34 (Delta). J.D. Power has recently reported an uptick in satisfactions, especially Alaska Airlines, Jet Blue and Southwest. Still, U.S. Carriers have a long way to go to meet the level of service expected by passengers and met by most overseas carriers.

04/25/2017

I can recall back in December 2015 when Starbucks came out with the “red cup” to celebrate Christmas with its customers. The idea was when you went to the store and bought that tall coffee or a venti-sized Pumpkin Spiced Latte, the baristas would say Merry Christmas to you. I always thought it was a PR stunt by Starbucks, although many credited the company with trying to engage its customers.

Then there was putting #RaceTogether on its cups to get a dialogue going on race relations. “Shall we overcome?” was the question Starbucks posed on March 15th, 2015 with a splashy full-page ad in The New York Times. The ad was part of a campaign that urged Starbucks baristas to speed up America’s impending harmony by talking openly with customers about race. Some criticized Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for his attempt to gain a captive audience. Many of us wondered about a coffee company’s attempts at an invasive social consciousness.

I never quite understood the thinking behind that campaign. I mean, do you go to Starbucks to discuss race relations with the baristas?

Now, along comes Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino that hit stores on April 19. One barista was so stressed out about having to make the drink that he went on a Twitter rant to vent his frustrations, saying that not only is the drink a pain to make, the ingredients have been staining his hands. "I have never made so many Frappuccinos," he explains. "My hands are completely sticky, I have unicorn crap all in my hair and in my nose, and I have never been so stressed out in my entire life."

The Instagrammable neon pink beverage starts with the chain's regular Crème Frappucino base, but adds a glug of mango syrup before the mixture is blended with pink powder. Employees then lace the plastic cup with sour blue syrup and top off the concoction with whipped cream, sour pink powder and sour blue powder. "If you love us as baristas, don't order it," the barista implores. "It's so difficult to make one right after the other."

I do have to wonder about the employee, who seems more stressed out because the drink taxes his work ethic than having to make the drink itself.

What should be Starbucks’ ethical responsibilities when making a cup of coffee? Here is a statement from its website about corporate social responsibility:

I’d like to see the company explain what it means by “ethically purchased and responsibly produced sustainable products” rather than attempting to be the social conscious of the coffee world.

Starbucks’ mission statement includes to “Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.” Here again, what are those standards?

It’s clear that Starbucks has a great reputation globally. Fortune magazine named it the third most admired company in the world. Let it stick with its core competency that developed the trust and admiration of its customers and less time on creating products to send a message or start a dialogue on anything other than the quality and taste of its drinks.